21/09/2026
DR. K. K. RAJI AND THE NEXTGEN INNOVATION CHALLENGE
THE STORY BEHIND THE CHALLENGE
What happens when you look beyond the problems Nigeria faces and ask a different question:
“Who are the young Nigerians with the ideas to solve problems?”
That question lies at the heart of the NextGen Innovation Challenge.
Under the leadership of Dr. K. K. Raji, the National Board for Technology Incubation (NBTI) created the Challenge as a platform to discover promising innovators and bring visibility to ideas that might otherwise never reach the right mentor, investor, partner or market.
The vision was simple:
Find the ideas. Find the innovators. Create the pathway for them to grow.
But the NextGen Innovation Challenge was never designed to be just another competition where innovators pitch their ideas, receive applause and go home.
The bigger ambition is much more transformative—to help Nigerian innovators move from idea to prototype, from prototype to product, and from product to market.
It is about creating meaningful connections with mentors, investors, development partners, industry leaders and global opportunities. It is about building an ecosystem where innovation can move beyond the laboratory, workshop or imagination and become a real business, a useful solution, a source of employment and a contributor to economic growth.
SO, WHY DID DR. K. K. RAJI START THE NEXTGEN INNOVATION CHALLENGE?
What does he hope to achieve?
The answer goes beyond the stage, the pitches and the prizes.
At its core, the Challenge is about people—young Nigerians who are thinking differently, solving problems and imagining possibilities.
It is about finding the innovator whose idea could address a challenge in agriculture, healthcare, education, energy, security, manufacturing, technology or other areas of national development—and creating an opportunity for that idea to be seen, tested, developed and connected to the resources required for growth.
It is also about changing the way the world sees Nigerian innovation.
Nigeria is not only a country with challenges to solve. It is a country with talent, creativity, ingenuity and ideas capable of producing solutions for Nigeria and beyond.
The NextGen Innovation Challenge seeks to provide a platform where those ideas can emerge, gain visibility and connect with opportunities that can take them further.
From the first spark of an idea to a tested prototype.
From a prototype to a viable product.
From a product to a business.
And from a Nigerian business to a solution with global relevance.
That is the journey.
And that is the story behind the NextGen Innovation Challenge.
Now, join us as we go behind the scenes to explore why Dr. K. K. Raji initiated the Challenge, what he hopes to achieve through it, and how NBTI is working to create a pathway for the next generation of Nigerian innovators to think, build, scale and change the world.
